The Nebula Awards will be presented during the annual SFWA Nebula Conference, which will run from May 16th-19th and feature programming developed and geared toward SFF professionals. On May 18th, a mass autograph session will take place at the Warner Center Marriott Woodland Hills and will be free and open to the public.

The Nebula Awards, presented annually, recognize the best works of science fiction and fantasy published in the previous year. They are selected by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The first Nebula Awards were presented in 1966.

The Nebula Awards include four fiction awards, a game writing award, the Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, the Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book. SFWA also administers the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Awards, the Kevin O’Donnell, Jr. Service to SFWA Award, and the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.

This means you can vote for these stories in the 2019 Locus Poll and Survey which determines the Locus Awards! Voting is FREE TO ALL! Along with these stories, Uncanny Magazine is also eligible for a Locus Award in the Best Magazine or Fanzine category, and Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas are eligible in the Best Editor – Pro or Fan category! Vote for the things you liked, and you can even write in things that didn’t make the 2018 Locus Recommended Reading List! YOUR VOTE ALWAYS COUNTS!

Hello, Space Unicorns! 2018 was a tough year. Though many things were hard and horrible, we are very proud of all of the amazing works we published in Uncanny Magazine. Everyone in the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps has been wonderfully supportive, and your enthusiasm has meant so much to us. It’s been fantastic to see how much our readers have been enjoying Uncanny’s fiction. And while we have our personal favorites, we’d like to know which stories YOU loved from Uncanny in 2018.

Reading period: January 15th, 2019 to February 28th 2019. Please do not submit anything until January 15th. Emails containing submissions will be deleted. (Uncanny Magazine uses the Moksha submission system.)

Who can submit:

We welcome submission from writers who identify themselves as disabled. Identity is what matters for this issue. What kinds of disabilities? All of them. Invisible and visible. Physical disabilities, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, mental health disabilities, and neurodiversity.

Yes, even if your disability is a recently acquired one.

Yes, even if your disability is static, or if it isn’t.

Yes, even if you’ve had your disability since birth.

Yes, even if you use adaptive devices only SOME of the time.

Yes, you.

Please read Elsa Sjunneson-Henry’s essay “Disabled Enough” if you have any doubts.

So, if you identify as disabled across any of these definitions or others, we want to hear from you!

We do not require stories to explore issues relating to disability, though we welcome them. We’re seeking fantasy stories that invite readers to enter worlds they’ve never seen before. We’re looking for immediate and visceral tales of danger, fun and inventive adventures, and fateful journeys to distant lands or to the dragon’s lair in your own backyard. We’re looking for intricate, challenging tales with gorgeous prose, verve, and imagination that elicit strong emotions and challenge beliefs.

We want the stories you’ve been yearning to encounter in the world. We want to engage with the characters you want to meet in fiction.

2- All stories should be in 14pt font, serifed (ex: Time New Roman, Courier, Garamond). double spaced, and attached in .RTF, .DOC, or .DOCX formats.

3- Your cover letter should contain the length of your story, your significant publishing history and awards, and information that might be relevant to that specific submission.

4- Please do not send multiple submissions at once, or submissions simultaneously submitted at another market or anthology.

5- We will try to respond to all submissions in 60 days. Please feel free to query uncannymagazine [at] gmail [dot] com if we’ve had your submission for over 75 days.

Nonfiction

Nonfiction Editor: Nicolette Barischoff

We are looking for essays that explore the relationship between fantastical literature and disability.

You are free to approach this exploration from any angle you wish. And we do mean any angle.

Some possible essay topics include: Tropes of disability within the fantasy genre, studies of disabled characters in specific works of fantasy, examinations of a particular author’s treatment of disability, examinations of secondary worlds and how those worlds might relate to disabled citizens, personal narratives as a disabled writer or reader, magic and disability, fantasy and ageism, fantasy and wellness…

And the list goes on!

Note that while expressing frustration with some of the genre’s more ableist tendencies is a fine thing to do, essays that are purely demolitionist in nature can begin to feel very reductive, and can leave us with the feeling that someone has come in and torn down all the sets and left us sitting on a bare, badly-lit stage. Paint us a picture. What are you hoping to build? What would you have others build? It’s been a difficult couple of years for most of us. What’s giving you hope right now? What about the fantasy genre do you love?

For Nonfiction we will accept either a pitch, or a fully written essay for submissions. If you are submitting a pitch, please make sure it outlines exactly what you hope to accomplish.

2- All essays should be in a standard font, double spaced, and attached in .RTF, .DOC, or .DOCX formats.

3- Your cover letter should contain the length of your essay (if applicable), your significant publishing history and awards, and any information that might be relevant to your submission. Don’t worry if you don’t have a publishing history. We’re looking for new voices as well as old pros. Just tell us who you are. Feel free to tell us about your specific experience with disability, but you are by no means obligated to share any information you do not feel is relevant.

4- Please do not send multiple submissions at once, or submissions simultaneously submitted at another market or anthology.

5- We will try to respond to all submissions in 60 days. Please feel free to query uncannymagazine [at] gmail [dot] com if we’ve had your submission for over 75 days.

Poetry

Poetry Editor: Lisa M. Bradley

We do not require poetry to explore issues relating to disability, but we do encourage it. We are looking for strong, emotional poetry with multiple layers of meaning. We are open to the full gamut of emotions. Hope, love, and joy can be just as powerful as fear, hate, and grief. Clear language can be just as vibrant and powerful as more intricate language. Most of all, we are looking for poetry that has a unique voice and doesn’t shy away from engaging with its core issues and themes.

2- Your cover letter should contain the length of your poem(s), your significant publishing history and awards, and information that might be relevant to that specific submission. Don’t worry if you have no previous publications. Everyone starts somewhere, so please don’t self-reject.

3- You may send up to five poems at a time, but please send them in separate files through the Moksha system in .RTF, .DOC, or .DOCX formats. Please do not send poems simultaneously submitted at another market or anthology.

4- We try to respond to all submissions in 60 days. Please feel free to query uncannymagazine [at] gmail [dot] com if we’ve had your submission for over 75 days.

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Disabled People Destroy Fantasy is a continuation of the Destroy series in which we, disabled members of the science fiction community, will put ourselves where we belong: at the center of the story. Often, disabled people are an afterthought, a punchline, or simply forgotten in the face of new horizons, scientific discovery, or magical invention. We intend to destroy ableism and bring forth voices, narratives, and truths most important to disabled writers, editors, and creators with this special issue.

(Special thanks to the Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction guest editors Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Dominik Parisien, Nicolette Barischoff, S. Qiouyi Lu, and Judith Tarr for developing the original version of these guidelines.)

Happy Holidays, Space Unicorns! There’s plenty of the holiday spirit here at Uncanny, so several of our editorial staff decided to share some of our favorite pieces of media for the holiday season. If you’re looking for something fun to watch, listen to, or read as the holidays approach, we hope you’ll find something to enjoy in our suggestions!

Erika Ensign, Podcast Co-Producer and Podcast ReaderThis Christmas I bring you the gift of music! I used to pretend I hated holiday music because it wasn’t “cool” to like it. When I grew out of caring what other people think about the things I enjoy, I admitted I love December because radio stations (two in my city of Edmonton!) play nothing but holiday and holiday-adjacent music. (I’m sorry, but “River” by Joni Mitchell isn’t really a Christmas song, even though it mentions Christmas. Neither is Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”) Sadly, local radio is rather limited in its choices. There are so many great holiday songs I never hear on the radio, so I wanted to share a few of the poppier tunes I wish I heard more often.

“I Want an Alien for Christmas,” by Fountains of Wayne, is a delightful little ditty that’s about exactly what you’d expect from the title. It is upbeat and peppy and full of clever turns of phrase like “I want a little green guy about three feet high with 17 eyes who knows how to fly.”

Weezer released a two-track Christmas EP in 2000, which has brought me a great deal of holiday joy over the years. “The Christmas Song” is very much an example of Rivers Cuomo at his whiny-piniest, but that’s one of the things that drew me to Weezer in the first place, so I am so on board for a schmaltzy-waltzy song about being lonely at the holidays. “Christmas Celebration” is much more upbeat—at least the music itself is. The lyrics are cynical and sarcastic. One of my favorite genres is poppy-peppy songs with pessimistic lyrics, so I am here for this. In the interest of calling out the problematic bit of a problematic fave, I really do not like the fat-shaming in this one so I come back to this track less often than the previous tune, even though this one is peppier and I like the tune more.

Stephanie Malia Morris, Podcast ReaderIt’s that time of year again, when a combination of so-close-you-can-taste-it holiday PTO and end-of-semester stress and relief (I work in a college library and absorb both from students and faculty alike) send me tailspinning into various obsessions. This year’s monkey is named murder: I’ve been gobbling up Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series while I wait (#223 of 223 holds!) for her latest book, The Witch Elm, to arrive at the local library. I did not realize I needed the Dublin Murder Squad books until I read In the Woods and fell into immediate, transcendent hate with the main character, a detective haunted, much like Scrooge, by the ghosts of past and present raised by the novel’s central case. The Dublin Murder Squad is everything I have ever wanted in a good murder mystery: tight plotting, intriguing characters, detailed research, settings so vivid they too are characters. As a holiday bonus, the series has a thing for the holidays and winter weather, from unheated interrogation rooms to catching murderers over Christmas dinner.

Animaniacs came into my life in a somewhat backwards manner: its finale (this film) released a year after I was born, and by the time I was old enough to watch TV, the most regular rerun from the series was Wakko’s Wish every Christmas. It’s highly representative of the zany, whip-smart show.

In Wakko’s Wish, orphans Yakko, Wakko, and Dot live in a town suffering under the greedy king’s tyrannical fist. Dot is sick in a Victorian-waif way, and Wakko works for a year to earn a ha’penny (as a kid, I thought this was an imaginary, infinitely large unit; learning he’d earned half a penny is both hilarious and almost relatable) to pay for Dot’s medical expenses. The ha’penny is promptly lost to the king’s tax collector, and desperate, Wakko wishes on a star. It works! Sort of: the Warners must travel to where the star fell to claim their wish, and when the town—and the king—catch on, it becomes a race.

If you’re not already raring to (re)watch Wakko’s Wish, consider its fantastic sense of humor and itsextremelycatchytunes. “It’s all for one and one for all — times three,” sing the Warners in a blend of individuality and common goals that I really relate to as the eldest of a trio of siblings. Overall, Wakko’s Wish is a great movie if you want to add some festive songs to your roster while visiting old friends.

Steven Schapansky,Podcast Co-ProducerI’ve never had a favourite Christmas movie or TV show growing up. I vaguely remember watching bits of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Frosty the Snowman when I was a kid, but it never really stuck. Actually, my main memory of watching a movie at Christmas is when my Mom needed to wrap some presents and sent my Dad on a mission to the local theatre to keep me and my sister occupied by watching “Pinocchio” (a movie that traumatizes me still).

The award for my favourite Christmas viewing was finally claimed on Christmas Day, 2010, when I watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special A Christmas Carol. It was the first such special for the new Doctor Matt Smith, as well as the Yuletide debut for head writer Steven Moffat. Moffat crafted a brilliant time travel infused take on the traditional Charles Dickens tale, which involves the Doctor having to convince a miserly Scrooge-esque figure to allow a crashing spaceship to be saved by going back in time to show him his past, present, and future, and how he could be a better person. It’s at times hilarious, thrilling, sad, moving, and it’s topped off by a wonderful child-like performance from Matt Smith. It also has a flying shark. God bless us, everyone.

Lynne M. Thomas, Co-Publisher/Co-Editor-in-Chief and InterviewerI’m a sucker for The Avengers, the 1960s spy show with a strong leaning towards SF/F, particularly the era featuring Patrick McNee as John Steed and Dame Diana Rigg as Mrs. Peel. Steed and Peel have a delightful on-screen relationship where the champagne flows freely, they respect each others’ skill sets and rely upon each other utterly as partners while looking FABULOUS, and they flirt outrageously, all the while foiling 60s spy plots. The holiday episode “Too Many Christmas Trees” takes this to its best possible extreme, introducing telepaths that are trying to steal secret’s from Steed’s brain at a Dickensian-themed Christmas house party. Which means that we get not only fabulous 60s clothing, we get costumes, including Steed dressed as Sidney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities (swoon) and Peel dressed as Oliver Twist. While I am here for all of the Steed/Peel banter, and it is DELIGHTFUL, my favorite part is the ending kicker, which takes a long-running subtext and makes it text.

This glorious album was created by Meco, the genius behind the Billboard #1 hit disco version of “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band” (he later followed that up with the “Ewok Celebration” which features a RAP BREAKDOWN IN EWOKESE!). 1980’s Christmas in the Stars is a Star Wars concept album featuring Anthony Daniels as C-3PO. He and R2-D2 are visiting a droid toy factory making toys for the S. Clause. What follows are a series of songs about their Space Toy-making adventures and teaching R2-D2 the true meaning of Christmas! Listen to Anthony Daniels talk-singing like a metal Henry Higgins in “Christmas in the Stars”! Dazzle at the should-have-been-a-holiday-standard “What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb?)”! And be amazed by “R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” which features the first recorded vocals of Jon Bon Jovi! Really.

Michi Trota, Managing Editor and Nonfiction EditorIf you follow me on Twitter, you’ve very likely seen me geeking out over Leverage. The show hits so many of my favorite story-telling spots: found-family, intricate puzzle heists, pop culture references, competence porn, a character who loves food. And there’s even two holiday themed episodes! While “The Toy Job” in season 5 is perfectly lovely, the season 3 episode, “The Ho, Ho, Ho Job” is on my shortlist of “things I watch every year for the holidays.” The episode has everything: a villainous plot to exploit Christmas for selfish gain, a literal plea for help from Santa, heists-within-heists with loads of delightful misdirection, a character’s grumpiness over the holidays that belies a truly giving nature, sharp dialog and banter, and even Die Hard references (Go Team “Die Hard Is a Christmas Movie”). Most importantly, the episode doesn’t just show how good Nate, Sophie, Eliot, Hardison, and Parker are at what they do, it’s the perfect snapshot of how much of a family they’ve grown into, and how deeply they’ve come to respect and understand each other. I can’t think of anything better for the holidays.